The 10 Unhappiest American Cities?? Bah!!

Ok...how many of you read this in today's Daily Real Estate News?

10 Unhappiest American Cities
No sun, no jobs and lots of foreclosures. This can be a recipe for unhappiness.

Not surprisingly, some cities whose residents struggle with lots of these issues also have high levels of suicide, clinical depression, divorce and violent crime.

BusinessWeek.com ranked 50 of the largest metros based on their misery and depression levels. The depression scoring is based on insurance reporting. The rest of the rankings come from the National Assembly of County & City Health Officials, FBI crime reports, the U.S. Weather Bureau and the U.S. Census.

While it's not clear that the recession has made these social issues worse - most of these cities had these problems before the economy headed south - and economic woes certainly can't be helping.

Here are the top 10 most depressed cities.

1. Portland, Ore.
2. St. Louis
3. New Orleans
4. Detroit
5. Cleveland, Ohio
6. Jacksonville, Fla.
7. Las Vegas
8. Nashville, Tenn.
9. Cincinnati, Ohio
10. Atlanta

Hmph. I'm sorry, but I'm NOT unhappy or depressed! Yes, the Browns had a "less-than-happy" season (ok, that's the understatement of the year), but the CAVS will be in the play-offs and baseball season is right around the corner...with a healthy Travis Hafner! Can you tell I'm a sports nut??

Anyway, I emailed this to my husband at work just now ~ he's originally from Cincinnati (but I love him anyway). I said "Look at this, we both made the top 10!"...to which he replied, "Let's just blame Columbus." That's right!! The Buckeyes lost another Bowl game in January. I agree...it's all their fault.

Just kidding! I love Ohio State, and my house is decorated with a mix of Browns, Bengals and Buckeyes paraphernalia...as well as cats (real) and elephants (not real).

Of course the article cites some very serious issues, and trust me, I'm not taking that lightly. But Cleveland and Cincinnati are both very strong cities! I've lived here my whole life, and my hometown has taken its lumps over the years. But we will come back...as will this economy. We just need to keep the faith and continue to be grateful for the positive things in our lives. Sappy? Maybe. But it sure beats the heck outta being sad and gloomy!

But a question for you:

Am I contributing to the negativity by even posting this???